Typewriter



May 26, 1936.

H. BATES TYPEWRITER Filed March 20, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR H KB) 54755 BY 4 ATTORNEY H. BATES TYPEWRITER 26, was.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 20, 1934 INVENTOR 4 y 5,4755

ATTORNEY Patented May 26, 1936 UNITED STATES TYPEWRITER Harry Bates, New York, N. Y., assignor to Bates Laboratories, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 20,

V Claims.

This invention relates to typewriters in general.

Among the objects of the present invention, it is aimed to provide a typewriter having a fixed 5 keyboard equipped with a plurality of character designating areas which serve as indexes to register with a key associated with a type carrier in turn to position the type carrier for printing.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a typewriter having .a plurality of character designating areas to serve as indexes for registration with a key operatively associated with a type carrier to position the type carrier according to the type corresponding to the character designating area in registration with the key and which key upon actuation will not only actuate the type carrier into printing position but also actuate the escapement or letter spacing mechanism.

These and other features, capabilities and advantages of the invention will appear from the subjoined detail description of one specific embodiment thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which a Figure 1 is a plan view of a typewriter made cording to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

and

Fig. 4 is a section similar to that illustrated in Fig. 2 but showing the type carrier in printing position. I

In the embodiment illustrated, there is provided a frame having a front wall I, two side walls 2, 3 and a rear wall 4 which frame preferably has extending across the forward portion thereof and inclining upwardly a keyboard 5 having marked thereon a plurality of character designating areas 6. The character designating areas are generally spaced and located to correspond to the keys of a universal keyboard. They are slightly offset one to the other so that if projected onto a common line they will all be spaced from one another.

The rear of the walls 2 and 3 of the frame is raised and has mounted thereon a guide plate I with upstanding ends 8 and 9 to form the guideways for a platen carrying bracket. The platen carrying bracket ID has formed on its ends upstanding plates I I and i2 forming journals for the ends of the platen l3 having finger manipulating rollers l4 and I5 at the ends thereof. The plates II and 12 continue upward rearwardly into the paper guiding plate It for maintaining the paper 1934, Serial No. 716,472

in frictional platen l3.

There are provided two sets of rollers, one set of rollers ll on the shaft l8 journaled in the brackets l9 and of the platen carrying bracket I0 and the other set of rollers 2i on the shaft 22. journaled in the upstanding ends of the side plates H and I2.

The front of the platen carrying bracket I0 is preferably provided with a plate 23 having a plurality of graduations thereon to indicate the position of the platen relative to the printing location.

The type carrier consists essentially in the present instance of a cone shaped wheel 24 having its widest diameter at the top with two sets of type on its periphery, the lower case type 26 at the top and the upper case type at the bottom. The wheel 24 is preferably fixed as indicated to rotate with the shaft 2'! pivotally mounted in the casting 28 which extends across the frame and is pivoted at its ends in the side walls 2 and 3. The lower end of the shaft 21 is preferably provided with a spring 29 which extends to the abutment 3|] extending from the inner face of the rear wall 4 and normally maintains the type wheel 24 away from the platen [3.

The position of the type wheel relative to the platen in non-printing position is determined by the stop bar 3| extending from the casting 28, see Fig. 3 and having an abutment at its rear end to'engage the plate 32 on the rock plate 33 journaled at one end in the bearing 34 extending from the rear face of the wall 4 and at its other end journaled in the side wall 2. Thisrock plate 33 has mounted on its outer end a lever 35 with a finger piece 36 hereinafter to be described.

For selecting a lower case type on the type wheel 24, the mechanism now to be described is provided. The shaft 2'! hasfixed thereon a gear 3'! provided with teeth to mesh in the rack 38 at the rear end of the plate member 39 which in the present instance is composed of several plates secured to one another having ears 40 and 4| pivotally mounted on the shaft 42 fixed in the side walls 2 and 3 and having another pair of cars 43 and 44 open at the top to engage the shaft 45 also fixed in the side walls 2 and 3. The shaft 45 cooperates with the ears 43 and 44 to determine the upward movement of the plate 39 in opposition to the spring 29.

The front end of the plate member 39 is provided with an upstanding arm 46 having at its upper end a finger piece 41 through which extends the stem 48 secured to the registering arm rolling engagement with the or key 49 which is maintained in lowermost position by the spring 50 pressed between the finger piece 41 and the arm 49. The arm 49 extends forwardly and has four openings 5!, 52, 53 and 54. The opening 5| is so positioned relative to the type carrier 24 that when it registers with the character designating area 6 having the marking 2 thereon, it will position the type 2 on the type wheel 24 in position to be printed so that if a piece of paper is properly rolled on the platen l3, the consequent depression of the key 4! against the tension of the spring 29 will cause the type 2 on the type wheel 24 to be pressed into engagement with the paper and to cause an impression.

Similarly as the recess 52 registers with the character designating area 6 having the marking q thereon for the lower case type, the type wheel '24 will be positioned so that the lower case type q will be readily positioned to be printed upon the depression of the key 41 as aforesaid.

The arm 49 may be composed of a translucent material such as celluloid or the like so that as the finger 41 is moved from side to side the characters beneath the same can be read without difficulty.

In order to print upper case type, in the present instance, the type wheel 24 has a dished recess 53 to receive the coil spring 54 tensed between the base or bottom of the recess 53 and the plate 55 adjacent the screw head 56 at the top of the shaft 21. The spring 54 presses the lower end of the cylinder 51 secured to the type Wheel 24 into engagement with the upper face of the rear portion of the arm 58 which normally rests on the collar 59 fixed on the shaft Z'l. The arm 56 extends forwardly and is pivotally mounted on the shaft 69 journaled in the side walls 2 and 3 and having at its ends fixed thereon the levers 6| and 62 with keys 63 and 64 formed at the upper ends thereof and extending above the keyboard 5.

The keys 63 and 64 constitute the shift keys. When it is desired to print an upper case type, it is only necessary to depress either of the keys 63 or 64 so that the type carrying wheel 24 is raised to engage the plate 55 and then upon selecting the type in the usual way by moving the key 41 until a recess 5|, 52, 53 or 54 registers with the character designating area corresponding to the type desired, the depression of such key 41 without releasing the key 63 or 64- will cause an upper case type corresponding to the character designating area registered to be printed.

When it is desired to move the platen from one side to the other without printing it is only necessary to depress the key 36 and grip the platen and move it. The action will be substantially as follows. The rock bar 33 has a forwardly extending arm 65 provided with an abutment 66 which is connected by the spring 61 with the plate 66 extending from the side wall 2. This bar 55 also has a slot 69 through which extends the pin ill to limit the movement of the bar 65. The bar 65 has an extension H with an upwardly extending finger 12 on which rides the arm 13. The finger 12 engages the downwardly extending finger M at the front end of the arm 13 when the key 36 is depressed in turn to rock the arm 73 forwardly. The arm 13 extends forwardly from the advancing pawl 15.

The advancing pawl 15 is formed into a bent lever pivoted at 76 to the short arm Ti of the bent lever 18 pivoted at 79 to the portion 89 extending rearwardly from the keyboard 5. The advancing pawl 15 is also provided with a spring 8! connected to the abutment 82 on the plate 83 extending from the side wall 3.

The advancing pawl 15 has in the present instance a plurality of teeth 84 adapted to engage the teeth 85 formed on the apron 86 extending downwardly from the base plate I of the platen carrying bracket.

The arm 18 engages the front face of the sleeve 51 when printing lower case type and the collar 59 when printing upper case type. Consequently when the key 4'! is depressed to cause an impression to be made, the rearward movement of the shaft 21 and consequent rearward movement of the sleeve 51 and collar 59 will permit the arm 18 to move rearwardly and thereby permit the spring BI to contract and draw the advancing pawl 15 a tooth space to the right so that upon the succeeding forward movement of the shaft 21, the engagement of the arm 18 by the shaft 21 will actuate the advancing pawl 75 to advance the platen carrying bracket l9 and platen l3 a letter space.

On the other hand, the depression of the key 36 when no printing takes place causes the finger T2 to actuate the finger I4 and therewith the advancing pawl 15 to be removed out of engagement with the teeth 85 of the apron 86 so that the platen l3 can be moved from side to side without interference.

Any type of ribbon feed may be provided in the present instance. The plate 80 has extending upwardly therefrom two shafts 96 and 9! on which the ribbon spools 92 and 93 are mounted carrying the ribbon 94. For guiding the ribbon from one spool to the other, the plate 55 preferably has two U-shaped arms spaced from one another adjacent the platen, to wit the arms 95 and 96.

For defining the position of the type, there is preferably secured to the plate 55 an extension 91 having a downwardly extending portion 98 provided with a central opening to define the printing position of the type.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made to the details of construction without departing from the general spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a fixed keyboard having a plurality of character designating areas having identifying notations thereon and arranged in four rows corresponding in position to the location of the keys of a universal typewriter keyboard, of a type carrying wheel, a fixed longitudinally extending rod, a selector pivotally and slidably mounted on said rod and slidable longitudinally of said keyboard and having a finger to register with any one of said character designating areas, a rack operatively associating said type carrying wheel with said selector whereby the registration of said finger with any one of said character designating areas will in turn position the corresponding type on said type carrying wheel in printing position, a pivotally mounted bracket operatively connected to said selector, said wheel being rotatably mounted in said bracket, and a spring maintaining said wheel and therewith said bracket in non-printing position, said selector being operable to actuate said wheel into printing position in opposition to said spring, said finger consisting of an arm extending laterally across said keyboard and having four orifices, one orifice for each row of character designating areas, said arm being composed 75 of translucent material through which the character notations on said character designating areas may be read to facilitate selecting the character designating area corresponding to the type desired to be printed.

2. The combination with a keyboard having a plurality of character designating areas arranged in a plurality of rows corresponding in position to the location of the keys of a universal typewriter keyboard, of a type carrier, a selector bracket slidable longitudinally of said keyboard, an arm mounted on said selector bracket, a spring for yieldably maintaining said arm in engagement with said keyboard while moving along said keyboard and while registering with any one of said character designating areas, and means operatively associating said type carrier with said selector bracket whereby the registration of said arm with any one of said character designating areas will in turn position the corresponding type on said type carrier in printing position, said arm extending across said keyboard and having a plurality of location determining formations, one formation for each row of character designating areas.

3. The combination with a fixed keyboard having a plurality of character designating areas arranged in a plurality of rows corresponding in position to the location of the keys of a universal typewriter keyboard, of a type carrier, a selector bracket slidable longitudinally of said keyboard and pivotally mounted relative to said keyboard, an arm operatively connected to said selector bracket, a spring for maintaining said arm in engagement with said keyboard while moving along said keyboard and while registering with any one of said character designating areas, and means operatively associating said type carrier with said selector bracket whereby registration of said arm with any one of said character designating areas will in turn position the corresponding type on said type carrier in printing position and whereby pivotal movement thereupon of said bracket will actuate said type carrier into impression creating position, said arm extending across said keyboard and. having a plurality of location determining formations, one formation for each row of character designating areas.

4. The combination with a keyboard having a plurality of character designating areas having character identifying marks thereon and arranged in a plurality of rows corresponding in position to the location of the keys of a universal typewriter keyboard, of a type carrier, a rockable selector bracket slidable longitudinally of said 5 keyboard, an arm operatively associated with said bracket to register with any one of said character designating areas, and means operatively associating said type carrier with said selector bracket whereby registration of said arm with any one of said character designating areas will in turn position the corresponding type on said type carrier in printing position and whereby pivotal movement thereupon of said type carrier will actuate said type carrier into impression creating position, said arm extending across said keyboard and having a plurality of location determining formations, one formation for each row of character designating areas, said arm being composed of translucent material through which the character identifying marks on said character designating areas may be read to facilitate selecting the areas corresponding to the type desired to be printed.

5. The combination with a keyboard having a plurality of character designating areas having character identifying m'arks thereon and arranged in a plurality of rows corresponding in position to the location of the keys of a universal typewriter keyboard, of a type carrier, a selector bracket slidable longitudinally of said keyboard, an arm operatively associated with said bracket to engage said keyboard and register with any one of said character designating areas, and means operatively associating said type carrier with said selector bracket whereby the registration of said arm with any one of said character designating areas will in turn position the corresponding type on said type carrier in printing position and whereby pivotal movement thereupon of said type carrier will actuate said type carrier into impression creating position, said arm extending across said keyboard and having a plurality of location determining formations, one formation for each row of character designating areas, said arm being composed of translucent material through which the character identifying marks may be read to facilitate selecting the character designating area corresponding to the type desired to be printed.

HARRY BATES. 

